50 States, 50 Lawns

College student Rodney Smith, Jr., saw an elderly man struggling to mow his lawn and offered to help. That gave him an amazing idea

- Celeste McCauley

RODNEY SMITH, JR.’S classes at Alabama A&M in Huntsville were done for the day that scorching August afternoon in 2015. All he wanted to do was get home, crank up the air conditioner and tackle his computer science homework. He jumped in his car but, for some reason, took a different route home than usual. A left here, a right there, then up a hill. That’s when Rodney saw an elderly man struggling to mow his lawn. He would take a couple wobbly steps, using the handle to stabilize himself, pause, then slowly push the mower again. Something inside Rodney said, You’ve got to help him. Rodney pulled over to the curb, got out and introduced himself. “Sir, can I help you? You’ve got a pretty big lawn here to cut.” The older gentleman, Mr. Brown, said he lived alone and wasn’t able to hire anyone to help keep his lawn in shape. “Aw, let me do it for you,” Rodney said. “It’s on me.” He got the job done in 20 minutes. Mr. Brown thanked him profusely, and Rodney went home feeling gratified.

Sitting at his computer to do his homework, Rodney couldn’t get Mr. Brown out of his mind. There must be other Mr. Browns out there—many others. He went on Facebook and posted on a local yard sale page that he would mow lawns for free for senior citizens.